of the golden sword, and his successful foray upon the flocks and herds of the triple Geryon.[1146] Whether these legends were Greek or Phoenician in origin is uncertain; but the Phoenicians, at any rate, adopted them, and here have been lately found on Phoenician sites representations both of Geryon himself,[1147] and the carrying off by Hercules of his cattle.[1148] The temple of Heracles at Gades is mentioned by Strabo[1149] and others.  It was on the eastern side of the island, where the strait between the island and the continent was narrowest.  Founded about B.C. 1100, it continued to stand to the time of Silius Italicus, and, according to the tradition, had never needed repair.[1150] An unextinguished fire had burnt upon its altar for thirteen hundred years; and the worship had remained unchanged—­no image profaned the Holy of Holies, where the god dwelt, waited on by bare-footed priests with heads shaved, clothed in white linen robes, and vowed to celibacy.[1151] The name of the god occurs as an element in a certain small number of Phoenician names of men—­e.g.  Bomilcar, Himilcar, Abd-Melkarth, and the like.

Dagon appears in scripture only as a Philistine god,[1152] which would not prove him to have been acknowledged by the Phoenicians; but as Philo of Byblus admits him among the primary Phoenician deities, making him a son of Uranus, and a brother of Il or Kronis,[1153] it is perhaps right that he should be allowed a place in the Phoenician list.  According to Philo, he was the god of agriculture, the discoverer of wheat, and the inventor of the plough.[1154] Whether he was really represented, as is commonly supposed,[1155] in the form of a fish, or as half man and half fish, is extremely doubtful.  In the Hebrew account of the fall of Dagon’s image before the Ark of the Covenant at Ashdod there is no mention made of any “fishy part;” nor is there anything in the Assyrian remains to connect the name Dagon, which occurs in them, with the remarkable figure of a fish-god so frequent in the bas-reliefs.  That figure would seem rather to represent, or symbolise, either Hea or Nin.  The notion of Dagon’s fishy form seems to rest entirely on an etymological basis—­on the fact, i.e. that dag means “fish,” in Hebrew.  In Assyrian, however, kha is “fish,” and not dag; while in Hebrew, though dag is “fish,” dagan is “corn.”  It may be noted also that the Phoenician remains contain no representation of a fish deity.  On the whole, it is perhaps best to be content with the account of Philo, and to regard the Phoenician Dagon as a “Zeus Arotrios”—­a god presiding over agriculture and especially worshipped by husbandmen.  The name, however, does not occur in the Phoenician remains which have come down to us.